1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electrical distribution systems, and, more particularly, to electrical data distribution systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electrical data distribution system typically transports data in a bidirectional manner to and from a workstation in an office environment. The data may be in the form of voice data conducted over telephone lines, or maybe computer-related data conducted over a modem, local area network (LAN), or wide area network (WAN).
Typically, each workstation in an office environment includes one or more receptacles, with each receptacle having one or more electrical connectors which are each associated with multiple-conductors for transporting the data to and from the workstation. The electrical connectors may be in the form of modular-style connectors such as RJ-45 connectors which allow peripheral equipment such as phones, computers, modems, etc. to be easily connected into the data distribution system.
A problem with a data distribution system as described above is that the connectors at each workstation must be individually hardwired back to a common data distribution location, such as a punch down connector block in a wiring closet. Whenever a workstation is moved or reconfigured, a qualified service technician must disconnect the wiring to the electrical connectors at the affected workstations before the changes can be made. The workstations can then be reconfigured as desired. After the workstations are reconfigured, the service technician must again rewire the electrical connectors in the workstation to the wiring closet. This process is expensive and time consuming.
It is also known to provide a distribution box located in the ceiling space of an office which is wired to the punch down block in the wiring closet. A plurality of breakout connectors in the distribution box allow each workstation to be quickly and easily reconfigured by simply unplugging the electrical cable between the distribution box and the workstation. Such an electrical data distribution system is a step forward over other presently used systems on the market, and is marketed under the name "Versa Cable" (TM).
When used above a ceiling in an office, the electrical distribution system described immediately above is quick, easy and relatively inexpensive to install and reconfigure. Under certain geometric constraints, however, the distribution box for distributing the data to the plurality of workstations may be too large. For example, in certain office environments having a raised floor, it may be desirable to place a distribution box in the floor rather than the ceiling. The space under the raised floor may have a height of only about 11/8 inch. Moreover, it may also be desirable to place a distribution box within a modular wall panel in an office furniture system. Such wall panels may only have a thickness of 2-3 inches. In such applications with tight geometric space requirements, the size of known distribution boxes may be too large.
What is needed in the art is an electrical data distribution system with a distribution box which fits within small geometric constraints and still allows for high breakout capacity to a number of workstations.